Lonely Men
by Adelaide Sweets
Summary: For over a thousand years, Tessa has traveled with the Mikaelsons. Currently on a little vacay from the family, Klaus calls her back when he breaks the curse. Now that her best friend is back, Tessa's undead heart is rebelling and skipping a beat whenever Klaus is near. Klaus/OC
1. Prologue

"_**The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever." **_

― _**Herb Caen**_

**Mystic Falls, 1011**

The flowers along the path were blooming, the snow from the harsh winter melting and leaving tiny puddles everywhere. Carefully Tessa lifted the hem of her dress, not wanting to wash out mud stains. The woven basket dug into her arm, filled with herbs. Her mother required most of these as the village healer. Tessa was her helper, fetching herbs and plants and occasionally making home visits. Her heart wasn't in it though, but it was a job. There was one more herb to collect before she could go home. Rosemary, the only herb that grew on the other side of the Falls. She rolled her eyes, the trek would take her to dark at least.

"Tessie!" A voice called and Tessa turned, a smile lighting up her face.

"Nik. What are you doing out here?" She asked still grinning.

"I gave the rest of my chores to Kol and went to your house only for your mother to tell me that you are out collecting herbs." Klaus explained walking beside her. "I don't think your mother likes me very much. Getting her to tell me where you were was a bit like milking a bull."

"You don't milk a.." Tessa trailed off as she realized what he was implying, a blush appearing on her cheeks. "I get what you mean."

"Where are you off to now? Your basket looks quite full." He commented rummaging through the various plants.

"Don't touch them Nik." Tessa scolded. "I have to go get rosemary."

"Isn't that on the oth-" Klaus started but she cut him off.

"The other side of the Falls, yes. I am not looking forward to the journey." She huffed and readjusted the basket.

"I'm coming with you." Klaus replied confidently easily taking the basket from her.

"No Nik you don't have to. I thought that there was a celebration tonight, aren't you taking Tatia?" Tessa reminded him reaching for her basket.

"I'll skip it. I get the feeling that Tatia will not be short on company." Klaus said overtly casual and Tessa froze.

"I was going to tell you I swear but how was I supposed to bring that up?"

"A simple I-saw-Tatia-screwing-your-brother would be nice." Klaus snapped.

"I saw Tatia screwing your brother." Tessa said weakly with a small smile. He smiled slightly and looped his arm through hers.

"I can't get mad though, I was the one who said that we weren't together." He shrugged.

"Wow that's surprisingly mature." Tessa slowly nodded shooting Klaus a glance.

"Yes well I still get to spend the night with a pretty woman." He winked and she raised an eyebrow.

"You truly are the village fool." She smirked.

It was a ten minute walk before Tessa could even hear the waterfall. Klaus had kept her entertained, telling fantastic stories of fighting bears off in the woods.

"Thank the gods that someone like you is here protecting me." Tessa chuckled after he finished a particularly tall tale.

"Indeed." He chuckled, draping an arm over her shoulder

**Atlanta, Georgia 2010**

It was an exceedingly normal day for Tessa Eriksen, now Tess Johnson. She had chatted with the neighbors, gotten her grocery shopping done and even had a nap. Currently sipping on some warmed up O+ she flipped through People magazine. A buzzing filled them room and one manicured hand grabbed the cell phone sitting on the table.

_Marcus (Witch) calling..._

"Hello, Tess here." Her customary British accent was replaced with a sweet southern accent.

"Tessa good to hear from you." A man's strong european voice filtered through the disposable phone.

"Likewise Marcus, what news do you have for me?" Tessa asked, the witch never called unless it was important.

"There is someone at my door asking for you." Marcus replied, his boredom evident in his tone.

"Who?" She was curious now. Nobody really knew she was close with Marcus.

"Tessie darling." This new voice was british like her and she recognized it immediately.

"Nikky what have I said about trying to contact me through my friends?" She scolded only a little interested in the fact that Klaus found out about Marcus.

"If I called you, would you have answered?" Klaus scoffed.

"Maybe. I told you, relaxation time." Tessa rolled her eyes. "I had to go alone because you stuck Rebekah in a coffin."

"You can yell at me all you want about that when we meet again. Where are you currently?" Klaus asked, much to the amusement of the blonde vampire.

"Atlanta Georgia. I'll meet you at the Soft Serve Cafe tomorrow at noon. Kisses." She hung up and set the phone on the table. He could never make it to tomorrow, if Tessa was correct he would be at her house in three hours.

AN: This is just a small 800 word prologue to the story. This is a complete rewrite of A Curious Thing.

If you followed A Curious Thing, the reason I decided to take it down and rewrite it was that I wasn't completely happy at the way the story was going. To be honest I though I did a poor job of characterizing Tessa and I knew I could do better. This is the (hopefully) better version.

{Please Read & Review}

Much love, Adelaide


	2. Old Friends and New Problems

**New York, America 1835**

It was never that Tessa didn't trust Bek's judgement, it's just that she doubted it at times. Sure Bekah had a thousand years of knowledge but so did Tessa and even she was a little iffy on what was happening.

"Do you know how badly this will mess up the economy of America?" Tessa asked staring at her friend across the table. Bekah nodded sliding over a piece of paper. It held a map of a mine.

"All we need to do is increase the amount of silver coming into the country and kill some wheat." Rebekah smirked. "It will work. All we have to do is compel some of the mines to increase their silver exports."

"What is our reason exactly?" Tessa asked looking at Klaus for some help. He shrugged and returned to flipping through the papers.

"I'm bored and it's easier to feed when there is a lot of people starving." She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"I suppose but we are going to try to collapse the economy. You don't think that is a bit extreme?" Tessa eyed her friends.

"Kol already damaged the wheat crops with the help of a witch, all we need is for you and Klaus to go to Mexico and Canada for the silver mines. This will work, I talked with Elijah."

"I'll do it. I will help you cause economic ruin."

**Atlanta, Georgia 2010**

Her calculations of when Klaus would arrive were off by thirty minutes. The knock on her door was obviously not Klaus and Tessa rolled her eyes. Someone's heart would be on the ground if he sent a minion to get her. The door opened and revealed a familiar face.

"Stefan?" Tessa gasped staring at the vampire.

"Tessie?" He stuttered and she launched herself at him.

"It is so good to see you, why are you here?" She asked with a huge grin. This was a very pleasant surprise. After all this wasn't Nik.

"Klaus, he knows you?" Stefan looked at her, his green eyes reflecting his very apparent confusion.

"He knows you?" Tessa looked around Stefan, eyeing the black car parked in her driveway. "Get out of the car Klaus!" She shouted and Stefan flinched.

"Tessie love, don't shout." Klaus called exiting the car and making his way towards the pair on the steps.

"Why is Stefan with you?" Tessa sent Klaus a look, draping an arm around Stefan's shoulder. "I basically called dibs on him in the forties." Something tightened in Klaus's smile and Tessa took her arm off.

"Sorry love, already got him in the twenties."

"He's mine."

"Well right now he's with me because his brother got bitten by a werewolf." Klaus said in an all too not-interested tone. That's when Tessa realized something was off. Inhaling she caught the hint of something that shouldn't be there. _Wet dog, the idiot broke the curse without me_.

Without any sort of warning, Tessa launched herself at Klaus, pinning him. Her action had the desired effect and golden eyes stared back at her.

"NIK!" She yelled glaring at the hybrid.

"Tessie calm down."

"For a thousand years I have helped you try to break that curse. I have sacrificed so much to help you with it. How do you repay me? By breaking it and not having even the decency to call." Tessa was majorly pissed off. "I'm your best friend and you can't even tell me. I can't talk to you right now." The door slammed with a resounding bang and Stefan gave Klaus a look.

Running through the house, Tessa was ready to run Klaus over with a car. Not that that would kill him but it would help a lot with her anger. She plopped onto a couch, burying her face in the cool leather.

"Ugh." She groaned, resisting the urge to pound something. "Stupid Klaus."

"C'mon I thought you like me." A voice cooed from the doorway.

"Klaus." Tessa angrily looked up and glared. "You do understand why I'm angry right?"

"I should have told you." Tessa looked at him again. This was too nice and understanding, he only did this when-. _Oh no, _Tessa mentally went through the siblings, _Finn, Kok, Beks_.

"Why did you dagger Elijah?" Tessa questioned, hoping her wild accusation stuck.

"How in the hell did you know that?" She grinned.

"A thousand years taught me a lot Nikky." He groaned and she flipped over to face him.

"Sometimes you read me too well." Klaus sat down next to her and Tessa sighed, sitting up.

"I just can't believe you didn't tell me." She confessed, her grey eyes boring into him.

"I didn't want you in the middle of it. Elijah was trying to kill me, essentially everyone was trying to kill me love. It takes more to kill me than it does to kill you." Klaus explained reclining.

"I suppose." Tessa mumbled resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm still a little mad."

"If it makes you feel any better, I only broke it two weeks ago. You're my first stop as a Hybrid." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and smiled. "You should feel honored." Tessa rolled her eyes.

"Glad to see breaking the curse didn't break your ego." She teased standing and opening the fridge. Piles of blood bags were in the fridge, carefully organized by blood type. Everybody had a favorite. "You want one?"

"I can't believe you're domesticated." Klaus smirked, looking at the blood bags.

"It's cleaner and less suspicious." Tessa explained opening one. _A+, my favorite_.

"It tastes horrible love. I prefer it fresh from the vein."

"Yeah I know. I think everyone knows." Tessa smiled throwing the bag away. She had been hungry, the more emotional she was the more blood she consumed.

"I came here for a reason you know." Klaus started going through the magazines on her coffee table.

"I thought it was because you missed me." Tessa chirped sitting down next to him.

"I need your help." She froze, her head snapping towards him.

"What?" Tessa asked, her confusion obvious in her tone.

"You know werewolves." Klaus specified. She nodded. "I need to find werewolves."

"It's going to take time Klaus." Tessa replied slowly, working through it in her mind. "Werewolves don't pop out of no where, it's genetic. You first need to find someone with the curse, then if you're lucky the pack they run with."

"Wait what do mean if you're lucky?" Klaus questioned.

"Well sometimes it's contained within the family and doesn't spread to anywhere else. The family will only have one or two active werewolves at a time. Other times, like in the bayou, it's multiple families that will run with each other."

Tessa had become the residential supernatural expert when Klaus was trying to break the curse. Klaus may have been the most well-known but Tessa knew the most. Scattered in warehouses across the country were grimoires, amulets, books and an assortment of important things she had collected over the centuries.

"Do you know of these families?" Klaus looked at her. Her nose was wrinkled in thought and Tessa was listing her warehouses in her mind.

She shook her head. "Not off the top of my head." Tessa pulled a computer off the coffee table and opened it. "I recently reorganized all my warehouses, sorting them sort of. I have them all down on the computer." Tessa opened up her document listing the warehouses. "I have two. The first warehouse is in Vermont, the second one is in London. Where to first?"

"You don't know which one would have it?"

"No, they're just organized by supernatural creature. I have three on vampire, two on werewolf, four on witches, and one on doppelgangers. Also there is one on curses." Tessa listed them off, ticking them off on her fingers.

"Are they warehouses or lockers?" Klaus asked a small smile on his face.

"Don't laugh at me. A few of them are warehouses, others are storage lockers." She shrugged her shoulders. "You wanted to know everything to break the curse."

"I did and your knowledge helped Tessie." Klaus smirked. "Also your witch friends helped too."

"So glad that they were of use. Did any of them survive?" Tessa asked, an eyebrow raised. She knew the mortality rate of people who worked for Klaus.

"No." Klaus grinned.

"Okay Nikky, pick a warehouse." Klaus glared at her for using that nickname.

"Which one is bigger?"

"The London one." Tessa answered after consulting the sheet.

"That one first, I will go inform Stefan." Klaus stood and extended a hand to Tessa. She took it and allowed him to pull her up. "Pack up."

"I'll be out in a few minutes."

Tessa went up stairs and throw clothes in a bag. She wasn't too concerned, if she forgot anything she would simply buy it in London. With everything ready, she texted the person who usually took care of her houses.

"_Keep it clean. Don't know when I will be back." _Tessa sent it and almost immediately received a response.

"_Everything will be taken care of." _She smiled and tucked her phone into her back pocket.

Walking through the garage, Tessa locked up all of her cars. Stefan and Klaus stood by a black car, parked haphazardly in her driveway.

"Who was driving?" She asked dryly, an eyebrow raised. Klaus just grinned at her.

"Stefan, be a gentleman and sit in the back." Klaus said, opening the passenger door for her.

"Thank you." Tessa nodded at the hybrid before he closed the door.

"London here we come." Klaus smirked and shifted the car into reverse while Stefan looked a little alarmed in the back.

_AN: Sorry about this being so late. I had finals for just about everything and recently was taking classes. This chapter is a little on the short side but the next one will be longer. Also the reference at the beginning at the chapter is to the panic in America at around 1835. We learned about it in class one day and all I could picture is the Originals getting bored and messing stuff up._

_**Question for the chapter:**_ _would you want me do polyvore sets for Tessa's outfits each chapter?_

_Polyvore Set: www. polyvore (dot com slash) chapter_old_friends_new_problems/set?id=125878612_

_Remove the spaces in the url._

_Read & Review please._

_-Adelaide_


	3. Werewolves of London

_If you hear him howling around your kitchen door__  
__Better not let him in__  
__Little old lady got mutilated late last night__  
__Werewolves of London again_

**Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, 2010**

Waking up this morning Tessa never would have thought that the day would end with her on a plane sitting between Stefan and Klaus. The ride to the airport had been a little awkward with Stefan asking her the occasional question about how she had being doing. Tessa had replied fine, how about you and it had ended with the story of how Stefan was dating the doppelganger that was killed to break the curse. No one had talked after that.

"Please fasten your seatbelts." The pilot's voice came over the speaker and Tessa pulled the lap belt across her body. The trio was in first class and Tessa held in her hand a glass of champagne, knowing alcohol would be needed to survive this flight.

"Why are you wearing your seatbelt?" Klaus quietly asked, eyeing the thing.

"I'm not an Original Nikky, I can't survive everything." Tessa answered shrugging her shoulders. "Better safe than sorry."

"I suppose." Klaus muttered.

Something struck Tessa right there. She realized the exact position she was in. Most of her friendships were with people who basically couldn't be killed but she could, rather easily actually. She was the weakness. Realizing her mortality was something she plan to do today but plans change. Tessa doubted that any of the Mikaelsons had thought of it either. Sometimes she forgot that she wasn't an Original, as that had been her company for most of her long life. Tessa shook her head and leaned back. Some sleep wouldn't hurt.

xxxxxxxxxxx

There was a slight bump and Tessa's eyes fluttered open. She looked around, confused until she remembered why she was on a plane. The next thing she did was lift her head off of Klaus's shoulder which she had been using as a pillow.  
"Sorry." She mumbled, still trying to shake off the last remnants of sleep.

"Any time I can be of use." Klaus smirked and Tessa knew that if she was human, she would have blushed.

"Where's Stefan?" Tessa asked looking around for her friend.

"I told him to snack on someone. He hasn't been gone for very long." Klaus smiled. She didn't respond but merely rest her head on his shoulder again. Tessa was not in the mood to deal with this. "Don't worry I told him not to kill. Just grab a snack." Tessa smacked his shoulder.

"You know he has trouble with blood." She retorted.

"I met him with no humanity and I want that Stefan back." Tessa straightened and rolled her eyes.

"Maybe you should stop trying to control that Klaus." She snapped and stood. "I'm going to go walk around."

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**Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean**

She ended up in the bathroom, trying to control her anger. Even when she was human, Tessa had a bad temper. Everything became amplified when you transitioned and now Tessa was pretty sure she could be classified as a hothead. Also she hadn't been around someone as infuriating as Klaus in a while. The only other person who could rile her up like this was Kol. For some reason, he annoyed her so much. The whole family annoyed her, they had when she was human.

"Tessie?" A voice said softly and she turned to see Klaus leaning against the doorframe. "Done with your tantrum?" Her grey eyes narrowed and she huffed.

"I need to go see Stefan." Tessa growled pushing past him.

"Oh sorry." Klaus moved, laughing slightly. He let her take a few steps before grabbing onto her wrist. "Don't be that way Tessie."

"What did you expect Nik? Me to be all sunshine and daisies?" Tessa snapped, turning on him.

"I expected you to be used to me." Tessa seemed to deflate a little, and she shrugged.

"You're right, I snapped. I'm hungry, you know how I get." Tessa murmured.

"Grab a snack." Klaus wrapped his arm around Tessa's shoulders and pulled her towards the cabin.

"Nik." She warned pulling away slightly.

"You're a thousand years old Tessie, you have enough control."

"It's not that. I trust myself, it's just that airplanes are an awkward place." She explained rolling her eyes.

"Fine then I will distract you." Klaus suggested and sat them both down.

"How?" Tessa smiled wryly.

"Tell me about what's stored in your warehouses."

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into." She joked. "I'll tell you what I know. Then you tell me about how you broke the curse." He nodded and leaned back in the chair.

"Werewolves first." Klaus requested.

"To be honest, no one knows how werewolves came to be. But we do know it's genetic and triggered by killing someone."

"Killing someone directly?" He asked and Tessa remembered how Klaus triggered his own werewolf side.

"No, for example if someone was in a car and driving drunk and then they crashed, the side would trigger."

"Ah. If someone was in my position, could they become a hybrid like I did?" Tessa assumed he meant dormant werewolf side and then turned vampire.

"I don't know. I suppose maybe, it definitely is an interesting theory to try." Tessa mused, thinking about it. "Anyways werewolves tend to come together and form packs in remote places like Montana and those sort of barren countries."

"How much did you learn about doppelgangers?"

"Not much. It seems to happen every 500 years or so and they are exactly identical." Tessa shrugged. "No one knew much about them."

"Where do you learn all of this?" Klaus asked a smile playing on his lips.

"Witches and old books basically. Trying to break that curse led me to a lot of interesting places. Now tell me about breaking the curse."

"It was boring Tessie." Klaus looked out the window. "Elijah tried to kill me." Shock overcame Tessa's features, her mouth dropping open.

"What?" She asked shocked.

"Something about being angry about my siblings having daggers in their chests." Klaus sent her a wry smile.

"Did you explain that they weren't permanently dead?" Tessa reclined back, still in shock over the news.

"Only after he had my heart in his hand." Klaus waggled his fingers, mimicking the motion of ripping a heart out. He then mimed throwing across the plane.

"Maybe you shouldn't have waited last minute for that conversation." She gave him a pointed look but he only smirked.

"Maybe you're right." He chuckled, his eyes flickering up to Stefan who walked in. "Everyone ready to be a tourist in London?"

"This is one of Klaus's favorite city FYI." Behind her hand Tessa winked and mouthed. "Beware." Stefan gave her a small smile.

"Well love, it appears we have arrived. Look out the window." Tessa leaned over Klaus and gazed out the window. The ground was coming up fast, the green blurs were becoming more defined.

"Welcome to London Stef." She smiled, standing and looping his arm through hers. "We are gonna visit all the sites."

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**London, England 2010**

There was always something about London that made Tessa fall in love with it. The last time she had visit had been 1879, she was one of the first female students to attend Oxford University.

"Brings back memories right Tessie?" Klaus joked wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Memories of you being a dick." She rolled her eyes, moving away from him.

"It wasn't all bad." He pulled her back towards him, his hand slipping into Tessa's.

"It wasn't all good." Tessa countered, glaring at him slightly.

"I was cursed, it wasn't my fault." Klaus said lifting his hands up, her hand still intertwined with his.

"You were horrible to me around. All 'I'm going to kill everything in sight', it was really annoying Nikky." Tessa complained shoving him. "You tried to kill me several times. It really hurt my feelings."

"Tessie darling that was over eight hundred years ago. You need to let it go." Next to her, Stefan's jaw dropped. She gave him a look.

"Did you not know my age?" Tessa asked her head tilting slightly.

"No, I knew that you were old but I had no clue you were so old. How old are you exactly?" Stefan asked his green eyes narrowing.

"Let me think. Over a thousand years for sure. I'm a little iffy on the exact age." Tessa said, ticking off years on her fingers. "I think just a little over a thousand." Stefan looked at her, his face clearly displaying shock.

"You really didn't know?" Tessa asked. "Sorry about not telling you." He just looked at her.

"That means you were turned by them." Tessa nodded.

"Time to go see some tourist sites." She chirped, plastering a smile on her face. "I wanna go on the Ferris Wheel."

"We're here for a reason Tessa love, don't get too distracted." Klaus warned as the car they had been riding in pulled up to the hotel.

"C'mon Nikky loosen up." Tessa laughed, pulling Klaus from the car and into the hotel. "Let's have fun. We haven't hung out in forever."

"Fine but only a few tourist sites." He conceded, allowing himself to be dragged along.

_**AN: Next chapter, tourist sites and warehouses! This chapter was awkward at parts but I don't think I did too horribly. **_

_Lorelai Sofia Petrova: Aww thanks_

_Krissie (Guest): Glad you loved it!_

_TetraGirl: Thank you for getting through the awkward beginning. I'm hoping to go farther back into the past of Mikaelsons' and Tessa. Nik and Tessa are, um, interesting together._

_chiiaraaaa: Thanks for liking it_

_carlasalvatore: Thank you for liking Tessa's character, I'm still trying to get her more believable. The interactions with Klaus are possibly the hardest things to write. They do look cute together! I made the Polyvore set for the previous chapter and this chapter. I hope you enjoy them!_

_**The next chapter will be out as soon as possible. **_

_**Question for the chapter: **__What tourist sites do you want Klaus, Stefan and Tessa to visit?_

_Polyvore Set: (dot com slash) cgi/set?id=126453885_

_Read & Review please._

_-Adelaide_


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